Becoming a citizen

In this session, we will move away from an analysis of texts and representations to follow how people and other actors use language to negotiate and act upon the process of  becoming or achieving the status of citizenship.  By drawing on the example set by the authors of this article, we will focus on the processes of observing, living, experiencing and engaging by one particular individual, W, as he participated in the bureaucratic process of applying for British citizenship. 

By reading closely this article, we will discuss and explore how this is a distinct way of understanding how the dynamics of language and other semiotic means contribute to the process of citizenship.  We will end this session by further exploring how understanding dynamics of citizenship beyond a static understanding of status, and rather as lived dynamics, where habitus and agency play an important role in the process.